Green

I love green! especially at this time of year in the garden as there are so many shades of green and so much life and growth. Everywhere you look plants are bursting with life and all the rain means everything is a vibrant shade of green.

Of course there ae exceptions! this is my purple acer in the front garden.

Fabulous Florence

We took a week's break in the school holidays and travelled to Florence - our first visit. We had a new camera to try out and hence took a lot of photos! It can very cleverly help you make a panorama with some sotfware back on the laptop and this is the view from Piazza Michelangelo - it was snowing back in England but we were in the beautiful sunshine.

This amazing view of Santa Maria Novella church is the one that greeted us from our apartment window! Just 5 minutes from the train station and the main sites of the city it was the perfect place to spend a week.

Our camera loves taking night shots - this is the Duomo at about 9 o'clock taken with no flash. it is an extraordinary sight for the amount of detail in the marble facing as you can see below.

My favourite place in Florence is Piazza della Signoria - a square near the Uffizi containing a unique outdoor sculpture gallery, including the famous 'David' by Michelangelo. It's very busy of course but a special place.

The interiors are, of course, equally spectacular. This is the dome of the Duomo painted by Vasari and depicting the last judgement.

Below is some painted detail from a wall inside Santa Croce church.

Of course there is loads more - I'll save it for another post!

Embellishing fun!

My lovely friend lent me her embellishing machine for a few days - what a lot of fun you can have with that! The piece above started as a section of a felted jumper onto which I fused wool, felt pieces and braids. The design just kind of grew organically and then I machine stitched on top for some more texture and sewed beads on to finish it off. I have to find a use for it now!

This piece is felt, wool, and wool fibres fused on by the machine onto scrim which is very fine and loosely woven. When the piece is turned over and you run the embellisher on the back some of the fibres show through to give more texture.

After I had embellished the whole piece, I cut it into sections, then repostioned them and, using the embellisher, worked over the joins so them met together again. This gave the piece added texture and interest. It seems the only limit is your imagination!

Venice colours

Take a look at this gorgeous wool I bought in the lovely Loop shop in Islington, London! (http://www.loop.gb.com/) It's so amazing I shall have to have it sitting out in my workroom for a while until I decide how to use it. We had a great day out on Saturday - first finding the Loop shop and a great little antiques/junk market - then seeing an exhibition in the Tate Modern. It was so spring-like we sat outside several times for coffee etc. It struck me afterwards that the wool at the bottom of the picture is Venice colours - below are a couple of pictures of the book I made after visiting Venice last year. Those colours have obviously got into my system!

Blue and yellow

I love this time of year when everything is waking up in the garden and the light is getting brighter. There seem to be colour themes in the garden through the year and in Spring it is blue and yellow. These tiny daffodils and pulmonaria are so delicate and the colours are so pretty together.

These great big daffodils in my kitchen look great in the sunshine and against the blue tiles, mirroring the colours outside.

And even my knitting seems to be following the same colour theme - blue wool and yellow needles!

Seaside Rose quilt

Here's my latest quilt - finished! I have had these Moda Seaside Rose fabrics for a while and wanted to make something for myself for a change! I chose the block 'Cups and Saucers' and added tiny shirt buttons in the centre of some of the squares. I think it's very pretty and it makes me think of springtime.

Childhood Treaures

Whilst I was hunting in the loft for something important - which I failed to find - I came across these pieces of sewing again. I made them when I was about 6 or 7 out of scraps from my Mum's dress making. It's true that what you love as a child stays in your heart forever! They are just simple applique held on by huge stitches but they have such character! I am so grateful that they were saved - first by my parents through lots of house moves and now treasured by me. I shall probably frame them and keep them safe from now on. So don't clear out everything when you move house!

Get organised!

I've been longing to sort out my craft and needlework bits for ages and finally got to it today. I looked at buying another storage unit but gave up and came home to find the perfect one lurking on the garage! It's not very pretty but I might give it a coat of paint when I get the chance. I feel very organised now and even found baskets, shoe boxes and other bits to fit. And it is the perfect place to show off my assemblages.

Too many goodbyes

It's been a difficult few days with way too many goodbyes. With lots of tears we said a final farewell to a brave little boy on Friday. On Saturday we waved our daughter off at Gatwick airport for her fourth term at uni in Kentucky. It leaves you feeling blue and the house feels a bit empty but tomorrow is a new day and there is comfort to be had in friends, family and the routines of life. On Friday after the funeral I came home and sorted out some of my craft stuff - it seemed to be something I could do that didn't involve too much effort but the routine of it was comforting. Today I have quilted and used my sewing machine and done some knitting - the routine of the stitching again doesn't take much thought but it has a comforting feel. It's times like these I really appreciate my crafts.

felting fun

I've had a thing about knitting lately - plus a new found skill of felting so what better fun than to combine the two! Of course there are loads of books and websites about felting - knitted or not - but this is my take on it. I had no idea how this bag would turn out - or indeed how big or small it would be - so it is an experiment. However I think it was a pretty successful one - here is the bag unfelted. It was knitted mainly from pure wool but some were chunkier than others.

And here it is felted!! I put it in the washing machine on 60 degrees F with a couple of towels and prayed! It measures about 6" high and about 12" across - so not huge but just right for holding a few balls of wool. I may even use it as a handbag on the right occasion!

I also had a go at some slipper socks for my daughter to wear in her dorm at uni - her feet are always cold! I followed a pattern from 'Felt Frenzy' by Heather Brack and Shannon Okey - (fantastic book with 26 projects for all kinds of felting). The toes didn't felt as well as the rest but they turned out pretty well I think. I felted these by hand with hot water, soap flakes and plenty of elbow grease and could keep an eye on how small they were getting! With the washing machine it's a bit hit and miss!

Chocolate brown and turquoise

Back in September my niece got married and this is the quilt I made for their wedding present. It is a sampler quilt with applique borders and chocolate brown sashing. Everyone who sees it says they like the turquoise colour the best. It was big - 108" square and took a lot of quilting!

Art Gallery crawl

We decided yesterday to go up to London and do an Art Gallery crawl. We started at the amazing V and A which has always been a favourite of mine. They were showing an exhibition of artists who turn the mundane and ordinary into works of art.



These 2 images show the work of artist Anne Wilson who crochets and knits tiny pieces from black thread and then mounts them to show a large map-like drawing.


The V and A building stole the prize for me though - this is the cafe!


Then we caught a black cab to the Tate Modern through the lit up streets - London always looks better at night. This is a not very good photo of St. Paul's cathedral from across the river outside the Tate Modern.



Inside is the world famous 'Shibboleth' by Doris Salcedo - she has broken open the floor of the museum rather than create an item to put in it. As we walked along the length of the crack in the floor we noticed everyone had to follow its line and peer into it - it was impossible not to. At times it is about 18" deep. Apparently when the exhibition is over they are simply going to fill it in - so it will always be there.

Waggas

My lovely friend made me this Wagga for Christmas - a traditional aboriginal quilt from Australia, often made by men from old feed sacks, and usually in this stripey pattern. She used all recycled fabric for my quilt and added clothes labels for interest! I love it - it's warm and snuggly and just the right size for sitting under on the sofa. Of course you could make it any size you like.

These are my recycled shirt fabrics for a Wagga of my own - mostly my husband's cast offs and a few charity shop ones. I was amazed when I cut them up how well they co-ordinated. Here they are all pressed and ready for rotary cutting into strips. It's very pleasing to get things ready for a new project - I'm already anticipating the finished result!

If you are interested in finding out more about waggas try folowing this link: http://discover.collectionsaustralia.net/nqr/index.php

Perfect antidote to Christmas!

My friends and I found the perfect way to dispel those post Christmas blues by having a craft day together - we had all collected far too many enticing old and interesting pieces of needlework history via ebay and the like and decided to create an assemblage with them. All that is required is and old box - the first photo shows a cigar box bought for 50p at a boot fair and the second is some very nice packaging that came with a Christmas present. Get the glue gun heated up, arrange your bits just how you like them and you are away! We lined the boxes with old paper patterns and pages from a vintage magazine to set off the threads, thimbles and so on. A lot of fun was had by all!